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Losing your city view? Tough luck

Sam Jim and other residents of Vine Street in Newport say a new home being built on the street is out of character with the neighborhood, will block their views and depreciate the value of their homes.
The Enquirer/Patrick Reddy

As he drove up into his hilltop Newport neighborhood one July evening there they stood, wooden stakes measuring off a foundation – a very large foundation – on the corner.

Not just any corner, the corner threatening one of the most precious – and valuable – features of his home: its Downtown city view.

With geography as it is here along the Ohio River, view disputes are nothing new and have waged from Newport to Mt. Adams. Without a defined view ordinance, property owners often have little say as to what is built between their property line and what can be seen from it.

But Ditto and his neighbors are determined to fight, believe they have grounds and have hired an attorney to preserve their quality of life and home values.

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Scott Ditto (left) talks with his partner, Jim Maschinot. They are among the residents of Vine Street in Newport who are upset about a home being built on the street north of their homes.(Photo: The Enquirer/Patrick Reddy)

Newport: We're staying out of it

"This had not been the plan," Ditto thought as he turned the key in the front door of the home he and his partner, Jim Maschinot, have been renovating over the last 11 years.

The plan, as it was explained to them, had been two smaller homes, constructed at a height that would not wipe out the glorious hilltop view of downtown Cincinnati from his home in the Cote Brilliante neighborhood.

Ditto soon learned the owner planned to build to 35 feet, the maximum allowable height, blocking the view of his and about a dozen other homes.

Their saga began years ago, when the developer Neyer Properties bought the corner lot at 1032 Vine St. Neyer asked for permission in 2009 to build three feet from the public alley, instead of 25 feet, which is the city rule.

Neighbors learned of the variance request, and while several weren't thrilled, they ultimately didn't object, because the developer said the plan was to build below the maximum height. Their views would be diminished, but not demolished.

The property sat vacant for years, but neighbors had planned for the two buildings to eventually be constructed.

Ditto and Maschinot extended their deck to capitalize on the view that stretches from Devou Park just east of the Great American Tower and overlooks the Wiedemann Hill Mansion, former home of George Wiedemann, founder of the George Wiedemann Brewing Company.

Neighbors on the street have had a handshake agreement not to build into another neighbor's view, Ditto said.

But Newport officials say they can't ask the same of the new neighbors.

"Regardless of my personal feelings, the time limits have passed for any appeals," said Newport City Manager Thomas Fromme, who says the variance transferred with the sale of the property and as long as the owners follow the zoning code, they can build what they wish.

"The current owner is doing nothing wrong, by law, so we're out of it, per se," Fromme said. "We're not in the business of sticking our nose in somebody's property rights."

The new owners, Michael and Janice Willis, did not return requests for comment.

The couple declined a plea to change their plans, sent in a letter from Ditto.

More frustrating, said Ditto, is that Michael Willis is the chairman of the Planning Commission in Lebanon, Ohio, which was confirmed to The Enquirer by a Lebanon staffer.

"He knows what this will do to our property values, and he's well versed in zoning disputes," Ditto said. "We reached out to them, one individual to another, and they were not receptive."

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The foundation wall of a home being built on Vine Street that has upset residents who live south of the home.(Photo: The Enquirer/Patrick Reddy)

Other communities have taken steps to protect views

Many cities do – or have attempted to – protect their residents' views.

Bellevue, Newport's neighbor, has a form-based code, where construction rules are centered on how a building fits in with what's around it, instead of the use of the property, say, for residential, commercial or industrial purposes.

Many streets in Bellevue end at the Ohio River. At the end of those streets the city has established a view regulation known as a "terminated vista."

When determining if something can be built there, city planners ask "is the view going to be better than the view of the river," said Zoning Administrator John Yung. "In most cases, it's not."

But "it's always a very gray area, kind of like design guidelines – it's in the eye of the beholder," said Yung, who admitted that the few times they've decided that something can be built as a terminated vista, it's been controversial and added a lot of time to the process. Ultimately though, Bellevue has decided that preserving the things they like about the community is worth the time.

Bellevue's code likely wouldn't help in a situation between neighbors, like the one playing out in Newport, Yung said.

Cincinnati once had a rule that protected individual property owner's views in some special districts, said Lee Robinson, a realtor with Sotheby's International Realty, who has sold countless homes, apartments and condos with views.

He also knows because he challenged a neighbor's plan when he owned a home in Mt. Adams, and won. But after Robinson sold the home, the city did away with that protective rule, and his old house lost its view.

"To be fair to the municipality ... it's hard to govern something like a neighbor's view perception," Robinson said. "They must have entire staffs devoted to hear these very emotional arguments, trying to determine who is impacted the most, my god, it's Armageddon."

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Sam Jim says the house will be about as tall as the pole in the background at left and block their views, depreciating the value of their homes.(Photo: The Enquirer/Patrick Reddy)

Property values could take big hit, or not

There's little doubt property values will be affected by construction of the house in Newport, but in a wider variety of ways than one might think.

Robinson thinks it's possible that Ditto's property could lose one-third, or more, of its value. Views are in demand more today than they have been in the past, "so it becomes a more sensitive issue," Robinson said.

To quantify the lost value is very complicated. It ranges by how much of the view is lost, what the view is, and what is now in the foreground, Robinson said.

A really nice house also could potentially lift the neighborhood's property values, Robinson said.

"If the house is constructed well and landscaping all pretty, the next person who comes across the neighborhood may say, 'Man, this is a substantial neighborhood,' " Robinson said.

But, if the reduced view diminishes the value of a large number of homes, the overall impact may be a net loss in property value on the street, he added.

"I empathize with both sides of this argument," Robinson said. "It's a terrible thing when you lose a view, and yet you don't own that other person's property to control it."

Monetary value set aside, Mary Jim, who has lived there for nearly 25 years, wants the new neighbors to acknowledge what others have gone through to make the neighborhood attractive enough for them to want to build there in the first place.

"We were one of the first rehabbers in the area," Mary Jim said. "Many others followed, and over time Vine Street turned into an upper-middle-class neighborhood, with everyone putting heart and soul into their homes."¦